New research examining both the content consumption behavior of marketing professionals and their marketing personas offers B2B marketers deep insight into their target prospects—marketers targeting marketers.
NetLine Corporation recently released the fourth installation of its research series, The 2017 State of B2B Marketing Content Consumption and Demand Report. The firm’s B2B content syndication lead generation network captures real first-party data to measure activity and growth trends in B2B content consumption over the past 12 months.
The report identifies three important recommendations for key stages of content-based lead generation, from content strategy to targeting strategy to prospect nurturing strategies, to increase pipeline development and revenue-driving opportunities.
“Marketers are often focused on one specific stage within the greater marketing-to-sales funnel, leaving them uneducated on opportunities for optimization,” said Robert Alvin, CEO and founder of NetLine Corporation, in a news release. “We want to help marketers see the bigger picture by providing the data necessary to make smarter decisions to increase revenue potential and campaign ROI.”
An important focus of the research is the delta between the active marketing personas researching marketing-related topics and the in-demand marketing personas that organizations are trying to acquire. In the past year, 65 percent of lead generation campaigns excluded 17 percent of the active marketing audience, comprised of influencers outside the C-suite. NetLine recommends that B2B marketers aim to build deeper influence within organizations by expanding targeting outside senior leadership. Targeting these professionals will build greater credibility throughout the buying committee.
Robert Rose, chief strategy advisor of Content Marketing Institute, encouraged content marketing and demand generation teams to account for the influencers. “Each and every stage of [the buyer’s] journey now has unique content consumption behavior and personas involved,” he said, in the release. “Your strategy must account for the varying levels of influencers within the buying committee that are now more commonly outside the C-suite.”
“We’ve set out on a journey to bring B2B marketers real content insights they can’t find anywhere else. Our goal is to empower content marketing and demand generation professionals with powerful insights paired with sophisticated content-based lead generation solutions to acquire more target prospects,” said Alvin.
The NetLine Corporation 2017 research series has covered information technology, human resources, and marketing industries, as well as an overall industry analysis. Powered by the largest B2B-specific content syndication lead generation network on the web, NetLine’s first-party data offers a unique view into actual B2B content consumption activity and intent-based marketing audiences.
